Ruud Comes Alive In Madrid, Wins First Masters 1000 Title

Casper Ruud, Mutua Madrid Open
Casper Ruud (photo: Ion Alcoba Beitia/MMO)

MADRID/WASHINGTON, May 4, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

Sunday evening’s final at the Mutua Madrid Open matched up Indian Wells champion Jack Draper against two-time Roland Garros runner-up Casper Ruud in this ATP Masters 1000 event on the crushed red brick of a sold-out Manolo Santana Stadium under cloudy skies. It was a star-studded event in the Spanish capital city that brought out both tennis Hall of Famer Stefan Edberg and Brazilian football legend Ronaldo to witness the crowning of a brand-new Madrid champion.

While Ruud is exactly three years older than Draper – both were born on December 22 – it was their first meeting on the ATP Tour. Each came into the title match having not dropped a set but with something bigger to look forward to. For Draper, born in 2001, it was to become the second British champion in Madrid after Andy Murray, who won titles in 2008 and 2015. For Ruud, born in 1998, it was to be the first Norwegian ATP Masters 1000 champion. While both players had shown their dominance during the Spanish fortnight, something would have to give.

As it turned out, it was Ruud who prevailed in front of his family and friends – and entertained thousands of Spanish tennis fans – 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, in two hours and 29 minutes. It was Ruud’s first ATP Masters 1000 title after losing two previous finals, in 2022 at Miami and last year at Monte-Carlo. He raised his arms in celebration and beamed a big smile for all to witness and appreciate. The 26-year-old Oslo, Norway native kept his cool and persevered under the pressure of the moment beneath the bright lights at Caja Mágica.

After not winning a set in his two previous ATP Masters 1000 finals, Ruud won two of the three he played against Draper – and it was not only enough, it rewarded him with the biggest title of his career. During his on-court interview with ATP Media before the trophy ceremony, Ruud spoke about what winning his first ATP Masters 1000 crown meant to him.

“It feels great, of course. It’s been a long time coming,” Ruud said. “One of the really big goals I dreamed about when I was young, so it’s an incredible feeling to accomplish it. Also, the way I did it today. It was a great match. I knew Jack had been playing unbelievable all year, and especially in this tournament, so I knew that if I didn’t bring my A-plus game, I was going to be whooped around the court.

“Luckily, I played really well. Jack has become such an incredible player, on any surface now. He’s won title on every surface except [clay], and he’s already made finals here in Madrid. So, it’s an incredible year he is having. This is a really big boost for me, and I would like to keep it going.”

The World No. 6 Draper, seeded fifth in Madrid, was playing in his first ATP Tour final on clay and looked to become just the third man born in the 2000s to earn tour-level titles on clay, grass and courts, joining Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Now, he’ll have to wait a little longer – but still has Rome and Roland-Garros looming ahead. The 23-year-old lefty from Sutton, England, who brought a 19-4 win-loss record into the final, was looking for just his fourth ATP Tour title, just 11 months after winning his first title in Stuttgart in 2024. Had he won, Draper would have joined Alcaraz and Felix Auger-Aliassime as the only players to win multiple ATP Tour titles this year, after he won his first ATP Masters 1000 crown at Indian Wells in March.

Meanwhile, the World No. 15 Ruud, seeded 14th, has been royalty on clay the past five years. With his conquest of Draper in Madrid, he leads the ATP Tour in clay wins (125), finals (17) and titles (12) since the start of the 2020 season. After capturing his first title above the ATP 250 level in Barcelona last year, Ruud became the third Scandinavian ATP Masters 1000 champion on clay, after Edberg at Hamburg in 1992 and Magnus Norman at Rome in 2000.

Level at a set apiece, Ruud broke to go ahead 3-2 in the decider and soon found himself serving to win his first ATP Masters 1000 trophy as the match reached the two-hour, 26-minute mark. Quickly, he gained a 30-0 lead on a couple of unforced errors by Draper. Then, Ruud set up championship point with a 15th-shot forehand winner that stunned Draper. It was one of many lengthy exchanges throughout the final between the two combatants. At last, Ruud could finally celebrate winning his first ATP Masters 1000 crown after hitting a brilliant forehand winner on the 11th shot of the last rally of the night, which wrapped up nearly two-and-one-half hours of gut-wrenching work.

Ruud finished with 40 winners – including nine aces – to 33 unforced errors. He won 81 percent of his first-serve points, converted three of 10 break points and saved four of seven from Draper. By comparison, Draper hit 43 winners – including six aces – and committed 30 unforced errors. He won 72 percent of his first-serve points. Amazingly, total points were even at 99-all.

Looking back, Ruud gave a superb mental and physical effort to defeat a very in-form Draper. It was the kind of final that could have gone either way. The new champion lifted his arms in victory and beamed a big smile toward his team, which included his coach and father, Christian. After he toweled off, Ruud could be overheard saying: “I don’t know what to write!” He processed the moment and wrote in Spanish on the camera lens that, translated into English, read: “and nothing more.”

In Madrid, en route to the title victory, Ruud garnered three Top-10 wins – just the second time in his career he’s achieved that feat – against World No. 4 Taylor Fritz, World No. 10 Daniil Medvedev and Draper.

Ruud took time to give a shoutout to his family and friends, who were sitting in his box Sunday evening.

He said: “I owe a lot of my success to all my closest ones. My family. My friends. My fiancée Maria. We got engaged last year so she’s been an incredible support for me over many years now. She came yesterday to come and support. Maybe that was the last little push I needed to get over the finish line. I’m really happy and it’s great I’m surrounded by amazing people. I’m a really lucky guy.”

During the trophy ceremony, Draper stood tall – he’s 6-feet-4-inches – and proud, and congratulated Ruud. He said: “Congratulations Casper, you deserve this. The way you played today, you were braver than me in the key moments. You deserve this. You’ve obviously put in so much hard work and constantly had very good years on the Tour. I just want to congratulate you and the rest of your team for all the hard work.

“This loss hurts, but I also want to thank my team. … This sport is brutal, but I think this loss is going to make me better, so I’ll keep trying.”

With the Madrid champion crowned, runner-up Draper will move ahead of Novak Djokovic into a career-high World No. 5 in the new PIF ATP Rankings on Monday, the latest achievement in the Briton’s standout season. Meanwhile, new champion Ruud will crack the Top 10 at No. 7, moving up eight spots, as the ATP Tour now packs up and heads to Rome and another ATP Masters 1000 fortnight, which begins Wednesday at Foro Italico.

Granollers and Zeballos crowned Madrid doubles champions

Marcel Granollers of Spain carried the weight of his country on his shoulders as the last Spaniard standing in either of the singles or doubles draw in Madrid. However, with help from his longtime doubles partner Horacio Zeballos of Argentina, they won the Mutua Madrid Open men’s doubles final Saturday.

The Spanish/Argentine duo defeated co-World No. 1 duo Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Mate Pavic of Croatia, 6-4, 6-4, in an hour and 15 minutes on Manolo Santana Stadium. It was the fourth time in five meetings that Granollers and Zeballos had beaten the Salvadoran/Croatian pair.

En route to winning their 11th ATP Tour title as a team – including their eighth ATP Masters 1000 crown and second in Madrid – Granollers and Zeballos defeated the top-three seeded teams, becoming just the second team in Masters 1000 history to do so. Previously, they defeated second seeds Harri Heliovaara of Finland and Henry Patten of Great Britain in the quarterfinal round and third seeds Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz of Germany in the semifinals.

“We are really happy. It’s unbelievable to win here again,” said Granollers, 39, a native of Barcelona. “One of the biggest tournaments in the world. To do it at home, it’s so nice. Thank you to Horacio for playing that good.”

As for Zeballos, who turned 40 earlier during the Spanish fortnight, winning the Madrid title – especially without dropping a set – was like a birthday present.

“We are like wine,” Zeballos quipped. “It’s a great feeling. We beat the best teams. The level is like this. Every match is so close. You can lose in the first round; you can win the tournament. It’s so close. I’m really happy we are playing against these teams that are playing so good. It [brings] really good confidence for us.”

The victory was the 175th as a team for Granollers and Zeballos, who improved to 13-4 this season and have now won three titles after collecting trophies by winning at Bucharest and on the Challenger Tour at Phoenix.

The loss dropped Arevalo and Pavic to 71-27 (24-7 this season). They’ve won six titles together, including last year’s Roland-Garros championship as well as three ATP Masters 1000 titles, including this year’s Indian Wells and Miami crowns.

Around the Caja Mágica

Sunday afternoon’s women’s doubles final was contested between a pair of unseeded teams, Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Anna Kalinskaya of Russia versus Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium – and it took a match tie-break to decide the champion.

In their first tournament as a team, it was Cirstea and Kalinskaya who won the Mutua Madrid title, with a 6-7 (10), 6-2, 12-10 victory over Kudermetova and Mertens in a final that lasted two hours and 14 minutes on Manolo Santana Stadium. The winners, who outpointed Kudermetova and Mertens 83-71, saved one championship point during the match tie-break at 10-9 and won on their second championship point.

En route to the final, Cirstea and Kalinskaya went 4-0 in Madrid and won three of their four matches in straight sets. Meanwhile, Kudermetova and Mertens were competing in their seventh final as a team – and first since winning the WTA Finals Fort Worth in 2022.

It was the fourth WTA doubles title for Kalinskaya and first since 2022, while it was the sixth for Cirstea and first since 2019. It was the first WTA 100 title for both players.

By the numbers

Both Jack Draper and Casper Ruud did not drop a set en route to Sunday’s final, marking the first time this has occurred at an ATP Masters 1000 event since 2016 at Shanghai, and it’s the first time in Madrid tournament history. If Draper or Ruud win the final in straight sets, they would be the ATP Masters 1000 champion without losing a set since Carlos Alcaraz at Indian Wells in 2023 and the fourth in Madrid after Roger Federer in 2006, Alexander Zverev in 2018 and Novak Djokovic in 2019.

“Quotable …”

“To be back in a Masters 1000 final feels great. It’s not every day you get to play for these titles. I’ve been in two finals before and lost both, so hopefully there will be another third time is a charm.”

– Casper Ruud of Norway, during his post-match news conference Friday, after defeating Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina in the semifinal round.

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